The Empty Room
by ThisIsTheGreatestUsername
Summary: Can Kirigaya Midori cope with the fact that her son Kazuto is trapped in the death game? Especially when the dead began piling up in the hundreds.


**Author Notes:** Here's another one shot. It explores Kirito's family and their experiences while he's trapped inside the death game. The idea came about from **DrytotheDen,** check her fics out as well, they pack an emotional punch. But with that said, I don't really know what to expect from this one shot. So enjoy.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Sword Art Online, or even the idea for this fic, I just own a tore pair of trainers.

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The door on the second floor had not been touched for a month. But it was not out of the minds of the Kirigaya family and each morning as they walked past it they would stop and stare for a moment or two before moving on, a sense of longing for what was lost lingering in their hearts for the rest of the day.

Kirigaya Midori, mother of one, step-mom of another, watched as her daughter Suguha stood limply at the other end of the hall, her reddened eyes, as they were always these past few weeks, fixed firmly on the door. The girl said nothing, no tears, no sobs, just suffering in the silence and looked broken beyond all hopes.

Midori walked slowly up to her and place a hand on her shoulder. "It will be alright, your Onii-san is strong," she whispered into the girl's ear, and her response was a teary stare that shattered all joy.

Then the sobs began.

Suguha went to school despite her emotional state in the morning. Midori dropped her off and said, "I'll pick you up after school today." Something she was usually unable to do because of her job.

The girl slightly nodded before going past the school gates without saying goodbye.

Midori's heart fell as she watched her daughter disappear into the crowd of students entering the school. She fought back the urge to call for her, wanting to tell her once again that everything will okay. But Midori knew that her words held little impact, because she herself was beginning to lose faith in them, especially when the dead were piling up in the hundreds.

She drove to her office, punched in her entry, and got started with the pile of files stacked on top of her desk. Her mind was distracted the entire time, by Suguha, by the door, and she found it increasingly hard to focus on the files in front of her. First the words couldn't register, then it had no meaning, and pretty soon she realized that she was just staring and not reading. She closed the file, not wanting to go on.

It was at around noon that she decided to go back home early. Her boss allowed the short notice leave, and she returned to an empty house, with its empty halls and empty rooms.

Midori unslung her workbag and dropped it on the coffee table before slouching down on the couch. In the past month all her usual energy and joy had gone. That showed in her work, but she tried to hide it at home in front of her family. Stay strong, she had told herself, especially for Suguha.

Troubled, she leaned back against the cushion of the couch, staring up into the ceiling. Minetaka and she had tried their best, but it was an uphill battle. Suguha needed time, an unspecified amount of time. Her thoughts wandered to the door again. _How long?_ she asked it. Of course it didn't answer back.

Midori got up and carried herself from the living room to up the staircase. Her steps were slow and heavy, and by the time she reached the second floor her legs felt wobbly.

The particular door stood to her left, and behind it, the reminder of their sorrow. She decided to chance her heart and reached for the steel doorknob, bolts of anxiety shooting through her body as her hand got closer.

Like a leper who had been denied human contact for years, at Midori's touch the door seemed to come to life. Shocked, Midori fell a step back, then hesitated for a moment before reaching forth again and twisting it.

The door creaked opened as if aching like an old man's back, and the room's inside suddenly came into view. Nothing had changed. Some dust had settled on the single-sized bed that was still untidied from the time a certain boy laid there. Midori felt her stomach turned and she looked away. To the left of the room, a brown desk stood and, on top of it, a computer sat quietly with a blinking red light that indicated it had been automatically switched off after a long time of inactivity. Midori moved throughout the room, examining the shelves containing books and magazines. She found the boy's school bag, and inside it, textbooks of acceptable conditions but were worn off at its sides and edges.

She next found herself staring at the closet. She opened it and saw the t-shirts and trousers hanging from the shelving rod. Underneath all the clothes was a large box labelled with a kiddish handwriting: Do Not Touch.

Midori touched regardless.

And found within it a scrawl of old items that had not been seen for many years. It was all the boy's old toys that he played with when he was younger. Midori still remembered the looks on his face every time she and Mineteka had bought a new toy for him. However he often got bored of them within a few weeks. Even as a young kid then, he was a strange one; he was more amused with technology than anything. Midori laughed as she remembered the one time when he had tried to figure how the TV remote works and had unscrewed the casings to study the insides.

She missed her child. Even though he wasn't really hers but her sister's. Still, she regards him as hers. A teardrop threatened to roll down her cheek.

Her attention returned to the bed, and she recalled the last time she was in the room, the day a month ago, after hearing of the breaking news. Her heartrate began to rise again. A sudden heat phased through her and she felt dizzy and started breathing deeply. Then the vivid memory came to her in flashes; of his still body, of the device attached to his head. Midori couldn't see his eyes then, but they must have been closed. Her legs threatened to collapse. It was as if all her energy was being diverted to prevent the flow of painful memories. But they kept coming…

The coldness of the room, the rush of fear, the dreaded realization.

Suguha had witnessed everything as well. At first, she tried waking her brother up by calling his name, then nudging him, but it was on the umpteen try she became desperate and began beating his chest. He didn't move, not even stirring or making a noise. Just like a dead body. There was no stopping of her cries then.

Minetaka's calls from Jakarta rang a lot during the time they waited for the ambulance to arrive. Midori had only picked up the phone once—the other times she was too afraid to leave Kazuto and Suguha's sides—and briefly explained the situation. The heaviness of his voice told her he was fighting back some emotions, but the strength within it did not flickered once, not even as she broke down into sobs over the phone. He told her twice it will be alright, have faith. But faith in what, she thought, her son or God? And so she prayed.

That was the day Midori's son was trapped in that game.

The buzzing of the telephone downstairs shook Midori from her thoughts. She didn't realize her face had been sweating heavily. She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand and then went downstairs.

The phone was still ringing and her daughter's soft voice came through the receiver when she picked up. "Okaa-san?" Midori froze for a second as she thought she had lost track of time and had forgotten to fetch her daughter home, but then she saw that it was still one o'clock and there was two hours before school ended. "Okaa-san?"

"Are you alright, Suguha?" Midori asked, remembering what had happened in the morning.

"I am…but I want to ask you something."

"What is it?"

There was a pause before she spoke again. "C-Can we visit Onii-san today?"

Midori's heart fell again, but she responded, softly though, "Of course we can. It's been a while."

"Thank you." The phone hung up after that.

At three when Suguha's school had ended, Midori drove over to pick her up. Out of the crowd of students, Midori saw Suguha walking alone, and she noted that it's been a while since she last saw her daughter with friends. She was a popular girl, but ever since the incident, Midori knew that she had been distancing herself from others.

Suguha got into the car; her eyes were soft and slightly puffy. There were some stains of tears on her cheeks.

"Are you okay, Suguha?" Midori asked.

"I'm okay, Okaa-san." Her voice was barely audible, then it lit up as she asked, "Are we going to see Onii-san now?"

"Yes."

The Kuroishi General Hospital was one of the largest of hospital in the area, which, of course, was why it had been picked by the government to house some hundreds of players who were trapped in the game. Its exterior was lined with a multitude of trees whose leaves, due to the cold winter, had died off and fell, littering the pavement ground with a stream of withered foliage.

The receptionist checked their IDs and then directed them to room 502. It wasn't necessary, merely protocols, for the receptionist had recognized Midori and Suguha from their last visits, and Midori already knew where her son was.

As they took the elevator up to the fifth floor, Midori's heart raced with anxiety. Suguha stayed especially quiet. Both mother and daughter didn't say a word, each of them to their own thoughts and building their resolve. None of them knew what they would do when they see the dormant body of the one they both love.

Then Midori reached forth and grasp Suguha's hand. The girl turned and saw her mother's smile. It was smile that looked apologetic but at the same brought a sense of comfort in her. She smiled back.

The room was a fairly large place with three beds, all of them occupied. There was the sound of the heart rate monitors in the air as screens showed regular cardiac activity for all three patients, droning the entire room into a series of rhythmic beeps every few seconds. Midori's son was on the bed at the farthest end of the room, next to a window whose curtains had been drawn back, spilling rays of sunlight into the room.

Midori noted the boy was considerably frailer now and his skin had sunk back all the way to his bones and whatever little muscles he has left. His hair was longer, and looked especially dry. There were creases of skin round his cheeks, areas where there once had meat, and it was like he had aged a couple of years in just a month. She fought back the tears that threatened to spill out.

Suguha took a step towards Kazuto, the smile from earlier gone.

"Okaa-san, can I be alone with Onii-san for a moment?" she said in the softest of tone.

Midori nodded. "Take your time," she said, and walked out the room.

She stood outside the door, head bowed, eyes closed, and leaning against a wall. It was as if the position helped balanced all her worries and troubles. It didn't. She had seen what her son, her precious boy, had become in just a little over a month, and she wondered how long can she hold up anymore before breaking and losing all hope. How long?

The cries of her daughter filled her ears, and Midori couldn't stop the tears anymore. She slid down against the wall to her knees, her hands covering her mouth so as to muffle the sound of her sobs. Then, for the first time in a month, she wept openly.

Oh Kazuto, Kazuto, where are you? My heart is breaking.

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 **Author Notes:** To be honest, I never wrote an emotional scene like I tried to do here. I don't know if it was shit or good, so tell me what you think.

But what I was trying to achieve here was to show a mother torn between her children. She tries to cope with her son being trapped in a death game while at the same time is equally worried for her daughter as she is also shocked by her brother's situation. And it pains her the most to see both her children like this. I see Midori as the type of parent who equally loves her children without favoritism, and tries her best to help them even if they don't notice them. I wanted to include more of Minetaka but his character is too limited in terms of canon that I'm not sure where to start with him, but I do see him as the same type of parent as Midori. It was unfortunate I didn't get to expound more of his character in this fic. But well, I don't know if I achieved any of what I had intended for this fic.

Well, that's the end of this oneshot, be sure to favorite, review, or PM if you want. See ya.


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